James Harden

[Mr.Espinoza ♔♔♔]

 

 

James Edward Harden, Jr. 1 (Los Angeles, California, August 26, 1989) is an American basketball player who currently belongs to the Houston Rockets of the NBA. With 1.96 meters high, he plays in the escort position.

Harden played in college basketball with the Arizona State Sun Devils, where he was named the All-American Consensus and Pac-10 Player of the Year in 2009. Harden was selected in third place by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Draft 2009. It became a key part of a young core of players led by Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. He was named Best Sixth Man in 2012 and the team reached the NBA Finals, where they lost to Miami Heat. In summer 2012 he did not renew a contract with the Oklahoma City Thunder; He was then transferred to the Houston Rockets and became the cornerstone of the franchise. He was first picked for the All-Star in 2013, in his first season with the Rockets. In the 2017/18 season he was the top scorer of the NBA and was awarded the MVP of the regular season

Sports career
college
He played two seasons with the Sun Devils of Arizona State University, where he averaged 19.0 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.2 In his second season he was one of the 50 finalists in the prestigious John R. Wooden Award.3 He got his best scoring mark on November 30, 2008, getting 40 points against UTEP.4 He was chosen as the best player of the Pacific-10 Conference tournament after defeating USC at the Staples Center, and later player of the year of the conference, in addition to joining the first All-American team.5 After two years at the university, he declared himself eligible for the 2009 draft

After rejecting the offer of renewal of the Thunder, Harden starred in a surprise transfer in August 2012 to be transferred to the Houston Rockets with Daequan Cook, Cole Aldrich and Lazar Hayward in exchange for Kevin Martin and Jeremy Lamb. Harden went from being the sixth man of the NBA finalist to the franchise player of a team under reconstruction. The Californian escort signed for 5 years and 80 million dollars. In his debut game he signed 37 points, 12 assists and 6 rebounds, thus becoming the second player with the best percentage of scoring in the debut with his team and the first Rockets player after Hakeem Olajuwon to get 37 points and 12 assists. In November of that year he broke his scoring record with 45 points against Atlanta Hawks. By January 2013, Harden had 14 games averaging 25 points, the first in the Rockets franchise to do so from center-forward Moses Malone. In February, he got his first triple-double against Charlotte Bobcats, and a few days later he again broke his scoring record with 46 points against his former team, Oklahoma City Thunder.

That year he would be named for his first All-Star. Under Harden's leadership, the Rockets managed to finish in eighth position of the Western Conference and for the first time accessing the playoffs since the 2008-09 season, where Houston was appealed in the first round by the Thunder themselves by a 4-2 overall. After the season, Harden was included in the third best quintet in the league.

For the 2013-14 season, the arrival of pivot Dwight Howard was a step forward for the Rockets, who finally aspired to do something important in the playoffs. Finally, the impact of the pivot was conditioned by the injuries, recovering, even so, for the playoffs. In this postseason they would end up falling in the first round against Trail Blazers led by Lamarcus Aldridge and Damian Lillard, who would decide the sixth and final game in Portland with a triple over the horn.

In 2014-15, Houston finished second in the West behind the Golden State Warriors, reaching the end of the Playoff Conference, where it was eliminated 4-1 by Golden State.

The following year, they finished eighth, and fell back against Warriors in the first round. That year James was the league leader in minutes played (38.1).

In the 2016-17 season he was second in the voting for the NBA MVP surpassed by Russell Westbrook, who set a record for double triples in one season, with 42, surpassing the old Oscar Robertson brand with 41; Harden got 25. Although he had better field%, more assists, leading the NBA in assists per game 11.2, he finished second in the battle for MVP.8

Harden scored a personal record of 46 points against Oklahoma City on February 26, 2013, although he surpassed his own mark by scoring 56 points, achieved on November 5, 2017 against Utah Jazz, 9 exceeding that achieved in 2016, when he earned a triple double against New York Knicks (53 points, 16 rebounds and 17 assists), one of the few double triples in history to have more than 15 in all three figures.10

On January 30, 2018, he established, at that time, his personal record of points scored in a historic game against the Orlando Magic (60 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists) thus becoming the first player in NBA history to get a triple-double with 60 points.

In the following season, the Houston Rockets, led by James Harden and Chris Paul were first in the Western Conference, with a balance of 65 wins and 17 losses, exceeding the franchise's historical record. Despite this, the Houston Rockets were eliminated by the Golden State Wariors in the seventh game of the conference final. James Harden was named MVP of the Regular Season, with averages of 30.4 points, 8.8 assists and 5.4.11 Being the top scorer in the league and the player with the most triples scored.

Already immersed in 2018-19, on January 23, 2019, in front of the Knicks, he achieved his personal scoring record with 61 points.12 During the season, Harden deployed his entire offensive arsenal, and set several scoring records. He managed to chain 32 consecutive games, scoring 30 or more points (historical record held by Wilt Chamberlain with 65 matches in 1961-62) .13 In addition, he became the first player in history to score at least 30 points, a all NBA teams (29) in the same season.14 At the end of the regular season, he equaled a record for Michael Jordan, and they became the only two players in history to finish the season with 2,700 points, 500 rebounds, and 500 assists.

International career

Harden United States in the 2014 World Cup.
Harden was part of the team of the United States team that won the gold medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London and was also part of the team that was champion in the 2014 Basketball World Cup in Spain. He was a candidate to be part of the squad that would participate in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, but finally declined the invitation